System and Method for Hosting Encrypted Monitoring Data

1. A monitoring system comprising at least one monitoring device coupled to a monitored system at at least one selected location for collecting data related to the operation of said monitored system, said at least one monitoring devices including communication ports and processors programmed to segment the collected data into blocks optimized for user analysis operations, encrypt said segmented blocks of data, bundle the encrypted blocks of data with unencrypted metadata that identifies the data blocks by at least the monitoring locations at which the encrypted blocks of data were obtained and the type of data, and transmit said encrypted blocks of data with said unencrypted metadata, at least one client device having a communication port coupled to said at least one monitoring devices, said at least one client device having a processor programmed to generate and transmit queries regarding selected ones of said encrypted blocks of data, and a monitoring service coupled to said at least one monitoring device and said client device including a processor programmed to receive and store said encrypted blocks of data with said unencrypted metadata from said at least one monitoring device, process said unencrypted metadata, and retrieve and transmit said selected ones of said encrypted blocks of data with said unencrypted metadata in response to said queries from said client device.

2. The monitoring system of claim 1 which includes multiple monitoring devices.

3. The monitoring system of claim 1 in which said processor in said client device is programmed to decrypt said encrypted blocks of data, and to process said unencrypted metadata.

4. The monitoring system of claim 3 in which said processor in said client device is programmed to use said metadata to organize said encrypted blocks of data in preparation for decryption.

5. The monitoring system of claim 3 in which said processor in said client device is programmed to use said metadata to determine how to present said decrypted data.

6. The monitoring system of claim 1 in which said metadata identifies at least one of the time and date range of said encrypted blocks of data, the measurements included in said encrypted blocks of data, the monitoring device in which said encrypted blocks of data were obtained, and the load being monitored.

7. The monitoring system of claim 1 in which said processor in said at least monitoring device is programmed to calculate aggregations and statistics for the measurement data included in at least selected ones of said unencrypted metadata bundled with said encrypted blocks of data.

8. The monitoring system of claim 1 in which said monitored system is an electrical power distribution system, and said at least one monitoring device is a power monitor.

9. A monitoring method comprising in at least one monitoring device coupled to a monitored system at least one selected location, collecting data related to the operation of a monitored system, segmenting the collected data into blocks, encrypting said segmented blocks of data, bundling the encrypted blocks of data with unencrypted metadata that identifies the data blocks by at least the monitoring location at which the encrypted blocks of data were obtained and the type of data, and transmitting said encrypted blocks of data with said unencrypted metadata to a monitoring service, in said monitoring service, receiving and storing said encrypted blocks of data with said unencrypted metadata transmitted by said at least one monitoring device, processing said unencrypted metadata, and retrieving and transmitting said selected ones of said encrypted blocks of data in response to said queries for such encrypted blocks of data, and in at least one client device coupled to said at least one monitoring device and said monitoring service, generating and transmitting to said monitoring service queries for selected ones of said encrypted blocks of data stored by said monitoring service.

10. The method of claim 9 which includes multiple monitoring devices, and in which said client device and said monitoring devices are coupled via communication ports.

11. The method of claim 9 in which said encrypted blocks of data are decrypted and said unencrypted metadata is processed in said client device.

12. The method of claim 11 in which said encrypted blocks of data are organized, using said metadata, in preparation for decryption in said client device.

13. The method of claim 11 in which said metadata is used to determine how to present said decrypted data in said client device.

14. The method of claim 9 in which said metadata identifies at least one of the time and date range of said encrypted blocks of data, the measurements included in said encrypted blocks of data, the monitoring device in which said encrypted blocks of data were obtained, and the load being monitored.

15. The method of claim 9 in which aggregations and statistics for the measurement data included in at least selected ones of said unencrypted metadata bundled with said encrypted blocks of data are calculated in said at least one monitoring device.

16. The method of claim 9 in which said monitored system is an electrical power distribution system, and said at least one monitoring device is a power monitor.

17. The monitoring system of claim 1 which includes a communication network coupled to said at least one monitoring device, said at least one client device, and said monitoring service.

18. The monitoring method of claim 9 which includes a communication network coupled to said at least one monitoring device, said at least one client device, and said monitoring service.